SUPPORTING STRONG INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE

RICHARD F. ELMOREHARVARD UNIVERSITY

NYCOSSFebruary 2015

TO GO FAST, GO BY YOURSELFTO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER

AFRICAN PROVERB

IMPROVEMENT OF PRACTICE:A PERSONAL JOURNEY

• Can education become a profession?• How does knowledge find its way into

teaching and leadership practice?• What are the various organizational forms that

learning takes, and which forms work for which purposes?

OUR AGENDA

• DEVELOPING AND USING PRACTICES OF IMPROVEMENT: THE INTERNAL COHERENCE PROJECT– Can schools manage their own improvement?

• WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “STRONG INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE”?– What counts as “learning” and how do we nurture it?

• THE FUTURE OF LEARNING– What role will schools play in the future of learning?

MEMORIZE THISPROPORTION OF VARIANCE IN STUDENT GAIN

SCORES-- READING, MATH-- EXPLAINED BY LEVEL--PROSPECTS STUDY

CLASS60%

READING52-72%MATH

STUDENTS28% R19% M SCHOOLS

12% R10-30 M

ROWAN, ET AL., “. . .PROSPECTS. . .” TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD (2002).

Part 1: Developing and Using Practices of Improvement

Implementation vs. Learning

Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset

TWO BIG MISCONCEPTIONS AT THE CORE OF CURRENT SCHOOL REFORM

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AS A LEARNING PRACTICE

• Ambitious improvements require teachers and leaders to learn how to do things they do not currently know how to do

• The more ambitious the improvement the larger the learning gap

• Most school organizations are designed to enable and reinforce what people already know how to do

• Ambitious improvements require (a) ambitious forms of adult learning; and (b) organizations that are designed to hold and reinforce the learning

THE INTERNAL COHERENCE PROJECT

• A product of an national initiative to connect research, organization, and practice: The Strategic Educational Research Partnership (SERP: http://serpinstitute.org)

• Design, test, and redesign a theoretically and empirically-based clinical practice of school improvement in collaboration with school- and district-based partners

THE INTERNAL COHERENCE MODEL

USING EVIDENCE TO BUILD COHERENT LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

• What do you see in the evidence?

• How would you support this school in its improvement efforts?

SOME INITIAL FINDINGS FROM THE IR and IC WORKWHY?

• High levels of initial engagement and enthusiasm with the work; extremely weak capability at the system level to sustain the work without external partners

• High levels of enthusiasm and commitment to instructional improvement; extremely low capability to develop and sustain an instructional focus and professional development to support it

• Consistent tendency to convert problems of learning and culture into problems of structure and process

• Strong, resilient, and unconscious beliefs and practices based on faulty assumptions about students’ capabilities as learners

THE DONUT HOLE PROBLEM

• Building organizational capability and coherence in the absence of strong, challenging adult learning produces little in the way of improvement

• Adult learning is primarily a cultural practice that requires. . .

• Challenging adults’ fundamental beliefs and practices in a safe and demanding learning environment

PART 2:WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “STRONG

INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE”?

A “GUEST LECTURE” ON LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT

Eric Mazur, Professor of Physics, Harvard University

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBzn9RAJG6Q

Discussion Questions

• What is Eric Mazur’s working definition of “learning” in his teaching and assessment practice?

• How is his definition of learning enacted in his practice?

• How does his definition of learning correspond to what you see in schools and classrooms?

• How does his definition correspond to what the accountability environment rewards?

LESSONS FROM NEUROSCIENCE

• Ability to perform memory tasks is a relatively weak predictor of learning

• Learning occurs through the elaboration of increasingly complex neural networks, acquired through repeated practice and engagement in unfamiliar situations

• Executive function– the ability to manage complex learning tasks– is a function of persistence, resilience, and positive feedback

• Positive affect in the presence of complex learning tasks predicts the development of executive function

LEARNING IS. . .

. . .the capacity to consciously modify understandings, attitudes, and beliefs in

the presence of experience and knowledge over time

Can adults engage students in forms of learning they themselves have never

experienced?

What types of learning would adults have to experience in order to master “strong

instructional practice”?

PART 3:THE FUTURE OF LEARNING AND THE

PROBLEM OF SCHOOLING

THE FUTURE OF LEARNING AND THE PROSPECT OF SCHOOLING

LEARNING

SCHOOLING

VOLU

ME

TIME

THREE TYPES OF INNOVATIONCLAYTON CHRISTENSEN

• SUSTAINING INNOVATIONS: THOSE CHANGES THAT PRESERVE AND CONSOLIDATE EXISTING STRUCTURES, PROCESSES, AND CULTURAL NORMS

• EFFICIENCY INNOVATIONS: THOSE CHANGES THAT INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY (IMPACT/COST) BY ALTERING EXISTING STRUCTURES, PROCESSES, AND CULTURAL NORMS

• DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS: THOSE CHANGES THAT TRANSFORM THE ENTIRE FORM OF ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ESTABLISHED INSTITUTIONS

THE STUPID LEADER HYPOTHESISCLAYTON CHRISTENSEN

• IN MOST CASES, WHEN ESTABLISHED INSTITUTIONS ARE DISPLACED THROUGH DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS, THE DISPLACEMENT IS NOT THE RESULT OF FAILURES OF LEADERSHIP

• IN MOST CASES OF INSTITUTIONAL FAILURE THROUGH DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION, THE LEADERS ARE ASSIDUOUSLY FOLLOWING THE LOGIC OF ESTABLISHED INSTITUTIONS THAT HAVE BECOME OBSOLETE, GIVEN CHANGES IN THE ENVIRONMENT